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Beneath the seafloor lives a vast and diverse array of microbes, chomping on carbon that constantly rains down from above and is continually buried by a never-ending downpour of debris — some whale dung here, some dea…

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Photo via Yahoo News courtesy of Joseph Russell of the University of Delaware. “The Joides Resolution heads to sea from the Azores to drill sediments on IODP Expedition 339 offshore Peru. Most of the Earth's organic carbon is stored in seafloor sediments.”